Minutes of the Diversity Committee Meeting of 4 October 2007
Present: Nancy Nieraeth, Nila Wiese, Mike Valentine, Margi Nowak, Monica DeHart,
Yoshiko Matsui, Janet Marcavage, Heather Ahuero, Carrie Washburn, Stacey Weiss,
Paula Meiers, Harry Vélez, Marcos Goldstein, Kim Bobby, Judith Kay
Absent: Heather Clifford, Skylar Bihl
The meeting was called to order at 8:05 by Chair Wiese.
The minutes of the previous meeting were approved (MSP).
Announcements:
Two new student members, Marcos Goldstein and Heather Ahuero, were introduced. Our
Faculty Senate liaison, Stacey Weiss, also was introduced. Hispanic Heritage Month is
underway and everyone was encouraged to support its activities.
Report by Kim Bobby on recent BHERT activities following the off-campus party
with a racially offensive theme:
Kim observed that although the campus-wide conversation was primarily a reaction to an
incident, the recommendations for pro-active initiatives matched those from other
conversations. These included such activities as a campus-wide moment at the beginning
of every school year to affirm values and discuss appropriate behavior; discussion of a
common book; a core course on diversity. Kim indicated that conversations will be held
prior to Halloween parties to remind students about appropriate themes. She welcomed
suggestions for different models and strategies for BHERT to consider.
Establishment of committee liaisons with student groups:
The liaison’s tasks include: visiting a few meetings and introducing ourselves; staying in
touch with the student club President throughout the year; and assisting with activities
(promotion of activities) as needed. We do not take the place of a faculty advisor.
Yoshiko Matsui distributed a list of student groups and new liaisons were established for
2007-08. She will distribute an updated list at the next meeting.
Report on Senate discussion of our self-study report submitted last year:
Stacey Weiss indicated that our request for discussion of the by-laws for this Committee,
including membership, was discussed by the Senate and will, she hopes, be put on its
agenda in several weeks after its opening semester tasks are completed.
Discussion of new Senate charges for 2007-08:
Stacey Weiss indicated that charges #1-5 were taken from the Committee’s end of year
report. Charges #6 and 7 are new. General discussion of charges #1-6 ensued and the
following points were made:
• The Committee recognizes that Charge #6 from the Faculty Senate authorizes this
Committee to assist Kim Bobby and Mike Segawa to appoint people to BHERT,
because the co-chair of BHERT comes from this Committee. BHERT consists of
•
•
•
•
a standing group that then calls on various sectors of the campus community as
needed. Kim Bobby and Mike Segawa will commence issuing invitations.
BHERT is housed currently within the Dean of Students Office (DOS), which
generates a data-base of student misconduct. A protocol is being designed to flag
those incidents involving students that might fall under the responsive purview of
BHERT. For incidents involving faculty and staff, Harassment Response Officers
are responsible for alerts to BHERT or for activating the BHERT protocol.
Harry Vélez asked whether discussing incidents pertaining to faculty should fall
under this Committee’s purview, such as occur when another institution attempts
to woo away a minority faculty member and the administration does not provide
competitive resources in order to retain that individual. The consensus was that
these incidents do fall under this Committee’s purview, and recommended this
faculty matter as a future agenda item.
Kim Bobby reported on her efforts to meet with departments about advertising,
recruiting, and welcoming, new minority faculty into the Puget Sound community
and its environs.
Harry also inquired about activities this Committee could take around curricular
concerns. Carrie Washburn relayed the Committee’s history of first attempting to
generate a list of courses with a significant diversity component, which collapsed
because the notion of diversity became so broad that it included every course in
the curriculum; and second, proposing to the faculty inclusion of a diversity
course in the core curriculum, which was voted down by the faculty. Carrie noted
that the Committee was successful in ensuring that every department in its fiveyear self-study addresses the question of how its curriculum advances diversity.
Discussion then turned to new Senate Charge #7 which reads:
“Consult with the Race and Pedagogy Initiative Task Force regarding its suggestions
on the diversity work of the campus, including diversity training and advance
planning of major diversity events.”
The Race and Pedagogy Task Force made initial recommendations specific to the Puget
Sound campus. The Committee believes that this charge refers narrowly to those
recommendations. Since the Race and Pedagogy Task Force generated the
recommendations, it was agree that was appropriate for that group to converse and
collaborate with this committee on their implementation, rather than vice versa.
After additional discussion, the following motion was MSP:
The Committee requests the Senate to revoke Charge #7 as written. Instead, it
proposes the following language: The Faculty Senate shall invite the Race and
Pedagogy Initiative Task Force to engage in conservation and collaboration with
the Diversity Committee about the implementation of the Task Force’s
recommendations for campus activities.
Discussion of future agenda items:
Judith proposed developing a new proposal about the duties and structure of this
Committee as a draft document to take to the Senate for its discussion of this Committee
in a few weeks. Nile and Mike will work on finding an additional staff member and one
additional student member to complete our roster.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:58 by Chair Wiese.